1. Field of the Invention
The present technique relates generally to network computer systems, such as client/server computer systems. More particularly, a technique is provided for serving real-time data using a Web browser in an embedded environment.
2. Background of the Related Art
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art which may be related to various aspects of the present invention which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
A variety of Web browsers, such as Netscape, Internet Explorer and America Online, are currently available for browsing the Internet and accessing resources across computer networks. The current standard for displaying information in these Web browsers is the hypertext markup language (HTML). Web pages using the HTML format typically have limited formatting capabilities and functionality. For example, special tags must be used to format text, to create objects such as tables, to insert pictures, to create background colors and schemes, to represent data, and to provide various other features for the Web pages.
In certain applications, it is desirable to provide real-time data on the Web pages. The conventional technique for providing such data is to slipstream the data into hard-coded Web pages or to parse special tokens into the HTML pages and then replace the tokens with the real-time data. Not only do these techniques consume considerable processor resources, they complicate Web page development, because the data generation process integrally relates to the Web page development process. Accordingly, the Web page developer must understand both the data generation process and Web page development. Existing techniques also prevent effective off-line Web page development, because of this integral relationship between the data and the Web pages. Unfortunately, HTML does not have a standard for serving real-time data from an embedded environment, which generally refers to an environment where an object or data generated by one application is embedded into an object or document generated by another application.
The present technique addresses the foregoing problems by serving Web pages that are mixed with dynamic data from an embedded system using object files to access the dynamic data. Accordingly, the present technique separates the development of Web pages from that of the dynamic data, thereby improving the efficiency of each development process.